The love story between pretty-yet-troubled teenage death-metal fangirl and handsome zombie guy who eats only animal brains. They can't kiss or the zombie can't resist the temptation and eat his love's head by accident. But death-metal girl is in love and wants to give head to him. Hilarity ensues.
–
Lukas StejskalJul 18 '11 at 14:45

8 Answers
8

It's never too late to jump on the zombie bandwagon. You just have to make your work stand out. Perhaps it would be better to think of it not as jumping on the zombie bandwagon, but rather claiming your own unique bit of territory in the vast zombie jungle.

Or, maybe it would be a good idea to make a parody of the genre after it's all squeezed out dry?

The problem with this theory is that modern zombie works are often already a parody of the genre. Would you watch a parody of Scary Movie?

Good horror stories tend to restate the common fears of the times, don't they? Why not pick a fear and restate it with zombies instead? It might make the genre fresh enough to be interesting.

For example, terrorism became a concern of society in the US after 9/11. Even though, as JMC says, a zombie apocalypse is unlikely, what about terrorists using zombies rather than suicide bombers? It could be interesting, especially if they received the support of some governments and that support backfired - badly.

For example, let the sympathy of the reader move from the people to the zombies. (They "lived" for centuries undisturbed in the caves until the humans started their mining destroying the source of energy of the zombies and now they have no chance then to feed on the humans).

When you put a foot on the wagon and another one in a field, make sure the wagon doesn't move. But I think the zombie bandwagon is not making much progress at the moment anyway, so you'd be safe.
–
Jürgen A. ErhardDec 14 '10 at 0:05

To expand on all the previous answers, the genre is NOT dead, just overused. I have seen hundreds of zombie novels and novellas and short stories and a few are good but most are boring and stale. The reason they are boring is because the author is writing a very low quality manuscript with many grammar and spelling mistakes. If I had to bet, I would say most aren't even edited. If you use correct grammar and write a good storyline with believable actions(such as those in Deadlocked by A.R. Wise and For Those in Peril on the Sea by Colin Drysdale) you really can't go wrong with a zombie book as there will always be an audience. Just wait until Vampires and Witches die down before you publish it :)